Editing the ACT cameras.csv File

Following are the contents required for each camera definition in the cameras.csv file:

id

A unique numerical identifier for your camera.

name

A descriptive name for your camera (this will appear within the Advance Camera Tools submenus in SketchUp).

description

An additional description for your camera.

Note: the name and description fields need to have the same value and must be different from any other line ID.

category

The category or "type" of your camera. The category appears as a menu item under Tools > Advanced Camera Tools > Select Camera Type. Existing categories include 16mm, 35mm, Digital, IMAX, and Photography. You can also create a sub-category menu by placing a forward slash between category and sub-category. For example, Digital/RED creates a category menu titled "Digital" and a sub-category menu titled "Red."

image_width

The physical width of the film or sensor for your new camera, in millimeters. Usually you will need to look this up this figure in your camera's manual.

aspect_ratio

The ratio of the width to the height of the film or sensor as a decimal number. The numbers 1.33 and 2.4 are common aspect ratios for film.

absolute_safe_ids

An absolute safe zone represents an area of the frame that’s limited by a physical reality such as a film or sensor size, or a maximum resolution for a given frame rate.

Use this field to include other cameras’ image widths and aspect ratios as safe zones for the camera you’re adding. Enter their IDs separated by vertical bars (|). For example, the RED® Mysterium® Full CCD Area camera has the following Absolute Safe IDs:

23|24|25|26|27|28|29|30|31|32|33|34

The previous string of IDs means that each of these referenced cameras will appear as safe zones when you’re looking through a RED® Mysterium Full CCD Area camera in SketchUp.

relative_safe_ids

A Relative Safe Zone represents an area of the frame that will be visible if the image is displayed in a particular way. Safe zones for SDTV (aspect ratio of 1.33) and HDTV (aspect ratio of 1.78) are good examples.

Similar to Absolute Safe IDs, Relative Safe IDs are used to reference other cameras (rows) in the CSV as safe zones for the camera you’re creating. List the IDs for the cameras you want to reference, separated by vertical bars (|).

camera_model

The ACT plugin checks this field in the CSV to see which SketchUp file (.skp) it should it should use to represent the camera in the drawing area. Camera SKP files are stored in the same cameradata folder as the cameras.csv file.

You can create your own camera models and reference them in cameras.csv as well. Just ensure you place the .skp file in the same directory as cameras.csv.